GAZA/JERUSALEM, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- Gazans, caught in the crossfire of the Hamas-Israel conflict lasting for more than 14 months, are yearning for a glimmer of peace amidst the relentless airstrikes and bombardment from Israel.
However, despite the international community pulling out all the stops to bring an end to the humanitarian catastrophe, the chasm between the warring parties regarding a ceasefire deal still seems difficult to bridge, casting a shadow over the prospects for peace as 2025 draws near.
The ongoing discords between Hamas and Israel have also raised alarm bells among analysts that the deadly conflict may well continue for a prolonged period.
A SPREADING WAR
In the midst of the raging turmoil in the Middle East, Gaza undoubtedly stands as the "eye of the storm."
The year 2024 has borne witness to the spillover of the Hamas-Israel conflict, which has spread its tendrils into multiple countries across the region, evolving into a significant regional crisis.
Throughout the year, Israel has unleashed a relentless military campaign across the Gaza Strip, sweeping from north to south. As the Israeli airstrikes and bombardment drew ever closer, nearly two million Palestinians were being forced to embark on a desperate escape for survival within the narrow confines of the Gaza Strip.
The Gaza border, a seemingly insurmountable barrier for the Palestinians, has not been able to contain the flames of war. Ramifications of the Gaza conflict have already sprawled into other parts of the region.
In April, Israel launched an airstrike on the Iranian embassy in Syria, prompting Iran to retaliate with a large-scale drone and missile assault on Israel, kicking off a cycle of retaliation between the two sides.
In May, a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi crashed, resulting in the deaths of all onboard. Then, in July, Hamas Politburo Chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed in a strike while attending Raisi's funeral in Iran's capital. Both Hamas and Iran accused Israel of carrying out the assassination.
In late September, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was killed during Israeli strikes against Lebanon. In the following month, the Israel Defense Forces' tanks crossed the border and advanced into the Lebanese soil.
As the conflicts heated up across the region, the people of Gaza found themselves ensnared in an increasingly dire humanitarian crisis.
A HUMANITARIAN TRAGEDY
According to Gaza-based health authorities, since the outbreak of the Hamas-Israel conflict, the Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has topped 45,000, and more than 1,300 Palestinian families have been completely wiped out from the land.
"Wars always impact the most vulnerable first and most. At least 70 percent of those killed in the war in Gaza are women and children," Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said on social media platform X in late November.
For survivors, most of them were forcibly displaced, and there has been no way home. Since October 2023, about 80 percent of the Gaza Strip's territory has been placed under evacuation orders that remain active, and more than 1.6 million people are now living in makeshift shelters, the UN estimated in early December.
"We have lived difficult nights. Currently, the children can't sleep due to fear, and they are unable to play because they have to collect water and try to obtain food from charitable organizations," Om Mohammed al-Zaanin, a displaced woman in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, told Xinhua.
"Even when a truce happens, and we are allowed to return home, I won't find it because my home has been bombed, which means that I will remain displaced for long," she added.
In recent months, even though most of Gaza's infrastructure has been reduced to rubble, the Israeli army has intensified bombing in northern Gaza, exacerbating an already severe humanitarian crisis.
According to a recent UN report, Israeli forces have continued to impose a tightened siege on Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun, and parts of Jabalia, and humanitarian assistance has been largely denied for about 60 days, leaving between 65,000 and 75,000 people without access to food, water, electricity or reliable health care, as mass casualty incidents continue.
Across the besieged coastal enclave, hunger is spreading amid severe flour shortages and reduced food distribution centers due to access constraints and insecurity.
"I stood here for seven hours, and I still couldn't get bread from the bakery," Om Ahmed Saady, a Palestinian woman, told Xinhua while queuing among large crowds to get bread at a World Food Programme (WFP)-supported bakery.
"We used to live with dignity in our homes, but now we suffer a lot from even getting bread," she said.
UNCERTAIN PEACE
Indirect peace talks between Israel and Hamas have been on and off in the past months, with Qatar, Egypt, and the United States as the main mediators.
To reach a ceasefire, Hamas has insisted on the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the entire Gaza Strip, the return of the displaced Gazans, and the completion of a prisoner exchange deal.
Israel, for its part, has expressed opposition not only to Hamas's governance in Gaza following the conflict but also to the prospect of the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority taking control of the Strip, complicating efforts for a truce.
Far-right Israeli ministers are becoming more outspoken about their goal of reconstructing Jewish settlements in Gaza, which were evacuated during Israel's 2005 disengagement.
In recent weeks, the indirect negotiations on a ceasefire in Gaza have gained momentum. However, the discords between Hamas and Israel still seem unresolved.
On Tuesday, Hamas referred to the ceasefire talks in Doha, Qatar, as "serious and positive." However, later in the same day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that he would not permit the establishment of a Palestinian state, throwing cold water on a widely expected deal between the Palestinians and Israelis.
As Hamas and Israel remain locked in a tug of war over political differences, for the people of Gaza, who are still living under the shadow of death and hunger at this moment, politics feels like a distant concern; what they truly yearn for is a return to a stable and peaceful life.
"We hope that the war will end, that people will find food and a source of income, that goods will be allowed in, that the crossings will be opened, and that we will be allowed to travel and go out of and back to the Gaza Strip," Bahaa al-Laqta, a displaced man in Deir al-Balah, told Xinhua.
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